Town of Tonawanda paramedics to receive new cardiac monitors

Paramedics that serve the Town of Tonawanda and Village of Kenmore will have six new state-of-the-art cardiac monitors for use during medical emergencies thanks to a unique financial agreement between the town and the paramedics’ foundation.

The town is able to obtain a much lower interest rate than the James V. Ryan Foundation for the $178,300.26 purchase of six Zoll X Series heart monitors, which are also used as defibrillators.

The Town Board, in resolutions passed Monday at its regular meeting, agreed to buy the lifesaving equipment by issuing bonds while the foundation will reimburse the town $75,000 up front and $25,000 in each of the next four years. The foundation would have paid an interest rate of 3.95 percent in a lease-purchase with Zoll but will end up paying less than 1 percent through the arrangement with the town, which Supervisor Anthony F. Caruana called a “win-win” at the board’s afternoon work session.

Meanwhile, the town’s chief medic says she’s excited about the upgrade from Zoll’s E Series monitors, which will be traded in to offset the cost of the new monitors.

“They are the exceptional monitor on the street for emergency medical services in today’s world,” Carla Bevilacqua, a registered nurse and paramedic supervisor, said of the X Series.

At less than 12 pounds, the monitor is much smaller and lighter than other popular models that can weigh between 18 and 25 pounds, she said. In addition to standard features such as 12-lead electrocardiograph capability for monitoring heart rhythms, the X Series has CPR support and integrated Wi-Fi for communicating directly with emergency room physicians.

“It actually displays the quality of the CPR in real time,” she said. “It’s going to actually show the provider if CPR is being done accurately, if it’s being done quick enough, are the compressions deep enough to actually move the blood.”

The foundation named for the town supervisor who started the paramedic program in the 1970s exists to raise funds and plan major purchases for the unit, which is part of the Police Department.

Each of the unit’s three advanced-life-support response vehicles will carry two of the new devices. The new monitors should go in service in late August after the unit’s 15 full-time and three part-time paramedics are trained on them, Bevilacqua said.